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Marty Mauk Wants To Work From The Inside Out

By Dick Murphy

Marty Mauk, Des Moines 2nd Ward City Council Candidate

For most of his adult life living in the Northeast neighborhood of Des Moines, Marty Mauk has worked from the Outside In. He has served on and led the Neighborhood Advisory Board, Northeast Neighbors, and Des Moines Neighbors just to name a few of his activities.

This owner of a small business is seeking the Ward 2 seat on the Des Moines City Council because he is ready to work from the inside serving people on the outside. He has believes he can help the city become more transparent and improve services.

His experience has taught him that the Council needs to make some tough decisions developing the next budget. “We have cut out the fat,” says Mauk. He has some ideas the city needs to address our budget dilemma.

On Thursday, October 28, Dick Murphy, Chair of the Endorsement committee for the Iowa Bystander, interviewed Mauk about his vision for Ward 2 and the City of Des Moines.

Learn more about what Mauk wants to and listen to the interview he conducted with UrbanIowaToday.com (UIT), here below.

Months ago I met with Marty Mauk at the Gateway Market and Linda Westergaard at Palmer’s Deli. I shared with both candidates the opportunity to send our publication releases, position papers, etc…

Mauk has sent a dozen or more items for publication. Westergaard has not sent a single item.

As the election neared Dick Murphy, former President of the Des Moines School Board and Chair of our endorsement committee contacted both candidates for Ward 2 about interviews.

Mauk obviously responded, Westergaard, despite saying she wanted to do an interview, never got back to Murphy.

Because we have added new media products and made major format changes in our other publications this fall, combined with the absence of major contested races in the major communities we serve – Des Moines where three of the four seats are virtually uncontested, Ankeny, Johnston, Urbandale and West Des Moines, we decided not to endorse this Municipal Election cycle. Instead we decided we would do interviews with the two candidates in the major contested race in the Greater Metropolitan community. Unfortunately only one responded.

While we are going to honor our commitment to not endorse Westergaard’s lack of responsiveness raises the question,

If she is inaccessible now to a local media serving thousands of her potential constituents how accessible will she be if elected – especially since contributors were able to access her such as the Realtors Association that contributed tens of thousands to her campaign.”

Meanwhile Mauk and his campaign have been very responsive and have also been very aggressive in reaching out to our readers.

Just food for thought as you enter the voting booth or share with friends in Ward 2 how they might vote.